SUNDAY 31 JULY      PUNGALINA

Worked 6.30am till 10pm. We were starting to feel quite tired.

Breakfast was as usual. The couple man wanted a cooked breakfast, so I cooked slices of ham with creamed corn on toast for him.

Again it was a busy rush to get the groups off – the men with their smoko, and the couple and O with sandwiches, biscuits, cake, fruit, smoko needs, drinks and water. It was the same sandwich fillings as yesterday – hard to think of other fillings that would keep without going too soggy and without disintegrating over the rough tracks.

Cooked some bread rolls. Made a bean salad. Finished off the gazpacho with some fresh chopped cucumber and capsicum. Made a fruit salad.

The survey men’s lunch was plates of cold meats and salad, including the bean salad.

O was being very good at remembering to bring my frozen meat requirements for the day – with A to jog his memory! Today I needed chicken breasts from the freezer.

Prepared the usual nibbles for the late afternoon. Served chilled gazpacho with rolls, followed by Asian style chicken breasts with oven baked potato and a sauteed mix of zucchini and carrot sticks. Dessert was fruit salad, served with little wedges of hedgehog.

We were kind of working ourselves into a routine again, but it was still all go in the kitchen. I was not sure which was harder: the pressure of larger guest numbers, as was the case with A’s party, but which was only a few nights. Or the pressure of extended stays, with fewer numbers. The latter certainly needed a greater variety of menu, and a constant keeping up of the biscuit and cake supplies.

Skunge dingo had been spending quite a lot of time around the camp, and cosying up to John. She was used to spending all her time with Beau and now that Beau was busy with her puppies, I thought Skunge was feeling lonely.